FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Lavrov: Europeans Know Ukraine Is Controlled by ‘Radical Nationalists,’ But Won’t Admit It

July 31, 2018 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that West European leaders know that the Ukraine government is under the control of “radical nationalists”—self-proclaimed Nazis, actually—and say so privately, but they will not say it publicly because they would lose face. After all, they held up the Ukrainian government as “a torchbearer of democracy” for so long. “I don’t know to what extent these misinterpreted prestige considerations, misinterpreted loss of reputation will dominate,” Lavrov said.

“When our Western, at least European, counterparts communicate with the leaders of today’s Ukraine behind closed doors, they tell them some quite unflattering things and seek to have some kind of reaction,”

Russia’s Foreign Minister said on Monday, when speaking to the participants in the “Territory of Meanings” National Educational Youth Forum.

“Western partners realize that [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko is impossible to negotiate with in terms of any provision of the Minsk agreements. They realize that he cannot control radical nationalists.”

“We have spoken with our Western counterparts frankly many times, and I have the impression that most of them are perfectly aware of what is going on,” he added.